Question is not-quite-hypothetical, given I've only just started writing the fic and we know I write at snail's pace.

If a fic has an actually rude title, would you all prefer I just headed the post "Fic - The one with the incredibly rude title" in the subject line?

Lunges, how I both love and hate thee.

As you can imagine, a fencing lunge (example here https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/283375001527549801/) and a gym lunge (example here - https://blog.fitbit.com/fitbit-basics-how-to-do-the-perfect-lunge/) are different beasts using different muscles. I do fencing lunges when I lunge, and I do gym lunges in the gym. I started doing them when one of the (then) Birmingham Uni PTs wrote my programme for me.* I think they help, not least of all because when I do them they hit that point of "hurts so good" that people who do physical exercise will recognise as working a muscle that needs it.

Gym I now go to since I move back to Birmingham has an equally lovely PT who I will give money to check my form once all things COVID have calmed down. Once, unprompted, she pointed out that my gym lunge form was pretty shonky. I've been working on my form ever since, and have been doing them unweighted. (She also suggested reverse lunges. They break my brain.)

I think I am at the point where my form is good enough that I could add weights. But at the same time, I'm not sure if I ought to because the form is so much more important. So suggestions, comments, etc greatly welcomed.


*Note, dude has now moved on from Birmingham but his programme still works for me. He remains the only person who has ever got "my purpose for this is to improve my ability to hit people with swords and not be hit. Also, I can't do much that involves my wrists going at 90 degrees". I am not saying this is because his sport was strongman and he was working round an elbow injury himself but ...

I need the name of an early-2000s US teen girl magazine to fit into the following sentence.

"They'd given him a hair cut, made him look like a jarhead, sure, but it was better than looking like the cover of (insert magazine here)."

I have no idea if Teen Beat was still going then, and I don't know if Just Seventeen was ever even a magazine in the US.

Any suggestions for an easy reader for a 4-5 year old?

I need a recommendation for a colleague. She wants a book to read on holiday, so preferably light reading. It also needs to be suitable for reading aloud because she reads books to the friend she travels with.

Apparently, when I write, I like to make things difficult for myself, because I have having to write a sex scene where no word can be explicit. Because argh! (actually because historical fiction and two characters who are both, for plot reasons, trying to ignore that they are having sex with each other).

For horrifying related reasons, I now need to know

1) did Belle Epoque Europe have lollipops?
2) What they called them, if they did?

Wikipedia is not being helpful.

On behalf of @psychemedia on Twitter - just finished reading Three Body Problem trilogy - incredible - & wondering if there's a Chinese equiv of William Gibson or Bacigalupi available in translation?

Because, yes, I would like some. Because all the fic I can find is about Breen. And no offence to Breen, he is my least favourite of the regulars.

(I am being good and not suggesting that the reason all the fic is about his is because he's the only white male under 40 in the main cast.)

Admittedly, there are only 4 1/2 people in the main cast but...

I do keep wondering if it's based on books or something, or if there is any explanation of why Jared appears, offers plot related info, gets a glass of wine from DI Sheppard and then vanishes off into the night.

Friends, Romans, people who know about Russian wildlife - for a bit in a story I require a Russian bird. I would prefer if it were something small and fluttery. Any ideas? The web has not been useful.

What are people using instead of Photobucket?

I can use Flickr for most things but there's a few things I'd rather not use Flickr for.

In exchange, if you want historical weather information for London, a website exists - http://www.london-weather.eu/article.87.html I may have been looking for information on 1946.